Central looks to put all burn permit sales online

Craig Bakay | May 27, 2020

Central Frontenac Council is in the midst of re-vamping its open air burn bylaw and much of its regular meeting Tuesday was devoted to that discussion. The meeting was held online on the Webex platform.

Acting Manager of Emergency Services/ Fire Chief Jamie Riddell said one of his main goals with a new bylaw is to amend the eliminate the manual burning permit system with a totally online system.

“Currently, burn permits are purchased through the municipal office and several local businesses which are paper based and are being done manually,” he said. “There is no follow-up in place once the permit is sold and the forms are not collected until the end of the season.

“The issue with this format is we never know who has a permit and/or what type they purchased during the active burn season.”

Riddell said the fire department has been busier than normal this season and noted that a fire can “get away quickly on you,” which is why they’d like to know where, when and what type of fire call they may be responding to.

Ideally, Riddell would like to see the system totally online and could start as early as “tomorrow morning,” but many councillors balked at that idea.

Dep. Clerk Cindy Deachman said the bylaw isn’t fully prepared and there would have to be several “enabling elements” included in it for that to happen.

“It would have to go to the lawyer and be approved,” she said.

“We won’t be putting this bylaw through for at least a month and we need to advertise this before putting it in place,” said Mayor Frances Smith. “I think we need to have in the bylaw that you can always buy a permit at the office.

“Not everybody has high-speed internet or even a computer.”

Coun, Bill MacDonald said he had heard that a resident had bought a permit and was charged for burning during a fire ban.

After the meeting, Riddell said “that must have been a few years back. I know of no such incident recently.

“Besides permits are not supposed to be issued during a burn ban.”

For the meantime, the paper permits will still be available for the next six months, Council decided.

Crains to do Sharbot Lake project

Central Frontenac awarded the tender the Elizabeth Street, Garrett Street and Robert Street Reconstruction project to low bidder Crains’ Construction Ltd. in the amount of $2,582,671 including HST.

There were four bids received with Crains being the only one under $3 million. The highest bid was $3,624,829.

Canada Day – canceled

Canada Day Festivities in Central Frontenac have been cancelled this year.

“I spoke with the Oso Recreation Committee and the cheque they sent to the guy we get our fireworks from has been returned,” said CAO Cathy MacMunn. “We did get a grant from the Federal Government of $5,800 for some type of festivities which would have included a Trail Day, which has been popular the past few years but that’s not happening any time soon.

“However, the grant is good until March of 2021 so we have until then to hold some sort of event.”

Swim Programs – canceled ?

Swimming programs in Central Frontenac have been tentatively cancelled for this year but MacMunn said “they usually don’t start until July so that could change, but for right now, no swimming lessons.”

MacMunn said it takes a fair amount of planning and organization on the part of the Township to put on the program and she said they wanted to give parents time to look at alternatives for this year.

“Besides, the beaches are closed,” she said.

Next meeting in person?

Central Frontenac’s next scheduled regular Council meeting is June 9, which is after the Province has planned to lift the state of emergency. The meeting would be in person, as opposed to online.

However, Council did pass a resolution to amend its procedural bylaw to allow some form of electronic participation in the event of emergencies such as the Province order being extended.

There was a general consensus that in person meetings are preferable to online but Coun. Bill MacDonald suggested there could be incidents, such as a member of Council being in a serious accident where it might be desirable to allow limited virtual participation.

Mayor Frances Smith agreed that there could be situations such as a major snowstorm also but cautioned that there would still have to be a quorum (five Council members) in attendance for it to be an official meeting.